Newsworthy

Dear Community Partners,

Here are today’s updates:

• Manhattan Team Welcomes High School Students in K-State Program
• Family Forward Videos Filmed at Building Blocks

Manhattan Team Welcomes High School Students in K-State Program

The Stormont Vail Manhattan Campus team hosted an amazing event on Tuesday, June 25, that helped support a high school camp through Kansas State University’s College of Health and Human Sciences. What’s better – is they get to participate in a second camp on July 9.

The Stormont Vail Manhattan team shared their knowledge with 23 high school students from the Health Professions Exploration Program summer camp. This included information about several career path experiences and opportunities typically not known to high school students. The goal of the camp is to introduce high-achieving high school juniors and seniors to various career paths within the healthcare industry.

Through three rotations, the Stormont Vail team instructed on phlebotomy, specimen handling and processing, ultrasound technology, cardiology and being an Advanced Practice Provider. Not only did our team members share about their love for their profession, but students were given highlights of each team member’s career pathway, and how they arrived into the role they are in today.

Presenting team members included Lab Supervisor Kim McDiffett, Ultrasound Techs Hanna McGann and Jenna Zimmerman, and Manhattan Cardiology APP Tiffany Naccarato. Heidi Wilson led the charge coordinating the program.

Family Forward Videos Filmed at Building Blocks

Stormont Vail Health assisted the Family Forward initiative – an effort to fill the child care gap in Shawnee County – by participating in videos filmed at Stormont Vail’s Building Blocks child care. Family Forward is a partnership of Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas and the Greater Topeka Partnership.

The initiative seeks to create new child care slots in Shawnee County as the county currently has fewer than half the slots required to meet the area’s child care needs. There are several parts to the initiative – providing child care workers with training and connecting them with potential employers, and enlisting businesses as partners in assisting families in meeting child care needs or to consider an on-site child care location. Family Forward also launched the Family Forward Fund through the Topeka Community Foundation to help assist families with child care costs.

Six public service announcement videos have been created to tell about the purpose of Family Forward. Two of the videos were filmed at Building Blocks and share information from Dr. Rob Kenagy about the importance of high quality child care to attract and retain employees, and another on why employers need to support working parents. Stormont Vail’s Building Blocks program provides the Stormont Vail team with a place to receive high quality, educational care for their children from infant through grade school summer camp.

Today’s edition of the We Together communication will be the only one this week because of upcoming holiday. Have a happy and safe 4^th of July holiday.

We together,
Dr. Kenagy